The Month of May!

I now have one more month left of my exchange, and as school is ending in a little over a week, everything has been pretty routine.  I go to the school in the morning until lunch time and I read books and do small assignments that the teachers give me.  I eat lunch with my family and I hang out with them at the table and we talk.  Later in the afternoon, my host sisters usually go to the library to study so I go with them.  I go out a little later when my other friends go out and then I usually meet my host sisters again because we all have the same group of friends.  There is a caffe in the center and that's where most people go during the afternoons to hang out so I get to talk with everyone.  One day after school, my host mom, my host sisters, and I went to a city about an hour away to go shopping.  We all had lunch together and walked around to the shops in the center. It was really nice to have that afternoon with my host family to talk and shop together.  I had a lot of fun. I also went over to the other exchange students house for dinner one night and she had bought peanut butter and jelly.  We made sandwiches for dinner and it was the first peanut butter and jelly sandwich I have had since I've been in Italy.  It was nice to have that little taste of home even though I will be going back shortly.  We also sat in her living room and watched a movie in Italian before I had to go back home.  It was a perfect, relaxed evening. There was also a huge market in the center recently and I went with my host sisters and our friends.  We walked around all day and shopped at the little stands.  The other exchange student was with us too and she is leaving in less than a week to go buuuack to her city.  She was buying stuff for all of her friends back home and it kept making me think about how little time I have left in Italy.  I feel like my life is here now and it is going to be so hard to leave.  I try not to think about, but it helps me make the most out of this time and spend as much time with my family and friends as I can because I don't know when the soonest I will be able to come back to Italy is.  I have been very happy this past month and I believe I have another great month ahead of me.  The last of my exchange. The year has flown by so quickly!

Ciao! 

~Devon

The Month of April

Well oops... I haven't been on my blog for a month.  I've been very busy and just too tired at night to even think about typing.  So here's the month of April.  It just happens to be my rotary reflection because I am too lazy to write something new.  It covers pretty much everything though!

The month started off great having just had the easter holiday and spending time with my extended host family and getting to know more people.  I had a week or so of school before I went to meet my mom and sister in Rome.  That was a really great experience because not only did I get to see them for the first time in 8 months, but I was able to travel around Italy with them.   We spent the first couple of days in Rome.  I've been there once before and I had a feel for where I was going so it was fun to show my family around and speak in Italian with the locals.  We were also there on a Wednesday so we went to the Vatican and were able to see and hear the new Pope speak.  Then we headed to Fabriano so that they could see my home.  That was my favorite part of the trip because I was able to show them my city.  We walked around and shopped a little for the whole day and they met a lot of my friends.  We also had lunch at my host families house and even though they don't speak Italian, we had me and my host sister to help translate and it was nice for everybody to get to know each other.  My host mom is also an amazing cook so my mom and sister were really impressed with the food.  Before dinner, we went to my first host family's house and spent about an hour talking with them which was also really great.  From Fabriano, we went to Florence and spent a couple of days there.  I have never been to Florence so it was amazing to walk around and see the city.  One of my favorites so far.  It's great to see the differences of all the cities I have traveled to.  Venice came next and we were there for another couple of days.  Venice isn't a super big city and I had been there once before so I was also able to show my family the places I had been.  At the end of the trip, I was off on a train back to Fabriano and them to the airport.  It was so nice being back home and seeing all of my friends again.  They said that they had missed me, which made me feel good.   I wasn't able to stay long because then my dad and grandma came.  My grandma was a surprise because I thought only my dad was coming and it was really great to see both of them.  We spent the day in Fabriano but it was raining, unfortunately, so we spent most of the time in the hotel playing games and some of my friends came over as well, which was nice.  For dinner we went to my host family's house and it was just as great having my dad and grandma get to know my host family and vice versa.  Then they went off to Venice for a couple of days while I stayed in Fabriano so that I could go to school and see my friends a little more.  Then I met them in Florence and we traveled from there to the Amalfi coast.  I was able to see Positano, Amalfi, Salerno, Sorrento, Pisa, Pompei, Capri, and Naples.  It was an amazing trip.  We stayed in Sorrento and drove to new cities some of the days.  Most of our time was spent in Sorrento though, and it is now one of my favorite cities in Italy.  It is a small but bustling city and we spent a lot of time exploring and shopping in the the small streets and the center.  The days we spent relaxing on the beach or staying in town were really nice because I had the time to catch up with my family.  They noticed how I have grown as a person as well.  I wasn't able to spend much time in Fabriano this month but it was a month of traveling around Italy and I learned a lot from that.  It was also obviously very nice to see my family!